Attractions of Kamyanets-Podilskyi district

The Bakota tract on the banks of the Bakota Bay on the Dniester river is one of the most popular natural tourist locations in Ukraine, part of the National Nature Park "Podilski Tovtry".

It is located on the limestone Bila Mountain, rising 120 meters above the river, near the village of Horaivka, 45 kilometers east of Kamyanets-Podilskyi, on the road to Stara Ushytsia.

Bakota was the name of an ancient Rus city that existed in this place in the XII-XIII and was the capital of Dniester Ponyzzia. Subsequently, the same name was given to a large village on the banks of the Dniester, which was flooded in 1981 during the creation of an artificial Dniester reservoir. Only on the slope of Bila Mountain are the remains of the Bakota Saint Michael Cave Monastery, where a tourist trail leads.

Bakota owes its popularity to the stunning views of Bakota Bay from the observation deck at the top of Bila Mountain, which are especially enchanting at sunset. Within the framework of the project "Bakota - in search of the flooded heritage", a monument to the flooded villages was installed here.

The site is equipped with a suspended wooden walkway, binoculars for viewing the opposite bank, and a tactile map of Bakota for people with visual impairments. The tourist visitor center is open. The route along the "Ancient Bakota" trail has been arranged with QR codes at key points that allow you to listen to the tour online.

Entrance to the park and car parking are paid. Services of tour guides, rental of places for tents and fires, use of tables, etc. are offered. There is a beach at the foot of the mountain.

The ruins of the bishop's castle stand on the steep Nadzbruchan mountain above the village of Chornokozyntsi.

From the middle of the 15th century, the fortified summer residence of the Roman Catholic bishops of Kamyanets-Podilskyi was located here. During the first century of the existence of the castle, which stands on the Wallachian road, the castle had to be renovated several times, as it was very often subjected to Tatar sieges - in 1502, 1503, 1507, 1511, 1513, 1516, and the last village was burned to the ground. The most extensive repair work was carried out after the expulsion of the Turks who ruled here from 1674 to 1699.

A two-story palace was attached to the regular castle with two round towers, and a palace-type estate was built on the southeastern slopes of the castle hill. The defensive walls had a thickness of 1.9 to 3.6 meters.

Only the ruins of the castle and the stone gate of the estate have survived to our days.

Burbun waterfall is located in the canyon of the Bobrivka river. In one of the gorges of the canyon, the river forms a five-meter waterfall that flows into a small lake.

The water is clean, has a rare turquoise hue for such objects. The water temperature is low even in the summer, because the gorge is made of shell and siliceous rocks. Abundant vegetation covers the gorge from most of the sun's heat. Local residents swim in the lake in hot weather.

Tourists rarely visit this place, thanks to which its natural beauty is preserved.

In the middle of the 18th century, the hetman of the great crown Yosyp Potoski made a proposal to found a Capuchin temple and monastery in Dunaivtsi. His father's mission was continued by his son Stanislav, who in 1751 invited the Capuchins to settle in the city. Stanislav Potoski died in 1760 before completing the construction. Since then, the monks have been forced to collect funds for the construction of the temple on their own. Only in 1790, the construction of the monastery was completed and the church was consecrated under the cover of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Stanislav.

In 1832, the tsarist government of the Russian Empire liquidated the monastery. A year later, the church was rebuilt into the Church of the Ascension of Christ, and the monastery was handed over to an Orthodox church school.

In the 1870s, during his trip to Podillia, the famous artist and writer Napoleon Orda created a sketch of the temple of that time.

In the 1990s, the church was handed over to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and bears the name Nativity of Christ.

The Casemate Tower is one of the least known fortifications in Kamyanets-Podilskyi, although it is located in the heart of the Old Town, in the courtyard behind the district council building (passage through the arch of the hospital from Hospitalna Street).

According to one version, built in 1667 as part of the city fortifications. According to another version, built in 1783-1791 as part of the guardhouse complex and in peacetime served as a toilet for detainees.

The building is round in plan, 9.5 m in diameter, with a rectangular vestibule on the north side. The walls of the upper tier, at a height of about 2 m, cut through six loophole windows.

Currently, the Casemate Tower houses an exhibition "History of fortifications of the XV-XIX centuries" with three models of fortifications, samples of cold steel and firearms, copies of ancient plans, engravings, lithographs, drawings, diagrams and more.

The annex presents a collection of Podillya smoking pipes of the XVIII century.

The Castle Bridge in Kamyanets-Podilskyi, connecting the Old Town with the fortress, looks like a solid stone wall, but in fact, it is a kind of sarcophagus containing an earlier structure inside.

According to one of the versions, the foundation of the current bridge is a construction of the Roman era. Originally, the Castle Bridge was arched. It is built above the Smotrych Canyon where the loop of the river forms a thin rocky isthmus that separates the Old Town from the mainland. It is said that this is the only bridge in the world built along, and not across, the river bed.

The Castle Bridge acquired its current appearance in the 17th century, when Kamyanets-Podilskyi was captured by the Turks. They rebuilt the bridge, using stone from the dismantled monastery of the Barefoot Carmelites. Since then, it is often called the Turkish Bridge.

On the side of the city, the powerful defensive structures of the City Gate (XVI-XVIII centuries) and the Armenian Bastion (XVI-XVII centuries) have been preserved. There is a cafe in the laboratory casemate.

The Chabanivka Village History Museum was founded in 1990 by the director of the local school, Vasyl Romanyuk. It is located in the premises of the village's House of Culture.

The most impressive part of the Chabanivka Museum is a large-scale unique mural by the Kamyanets-Podilskyi artist Volodymyr Lashko, created by him on three-story staircases. The murals on the walls reflect the history of the village's founding, Tatar attacks, the legend of maiden tears and the fern flower, which a brave girl came to Kupala for, and religious holidays.

The museum's exposition illustrates the history of the village from its founding to the present. A separate room, stylized as an old village hut, has been allocated for the ethnographic exposition.

The sculptural composition "Concord Table" on the hill behind the Old Fortress symbolizes the cultural diversity of Kamyanets-Podilskyi.

The monument was erected in 2001, after the first international festival "Seven Cultures" (sculptor Anatoliy Ihnashchenko). The giant concrete millstone in the center of the composition symbolizes the city, the metal pipe with a crown-shaped break is a fortress, and the limestone blocks spread around the millstone represent the seven nations that together created Kamyanets: Ukrainians, Poles, Russians, Lithuanians, Armenians, Turks and jews

The eighth stone lying aside is interpreted as a symbol of the fact that in the future any other nation or nationality may also affect the development of the city.

Dunaivtsi city recreation park is based on the site of the former park of the Krasynsky estate. In some parts of the park, you can find green spaces of those times.

In the 1980s, a modern recreation area for citizens was established. The basis of the park was a complex of attractions, including a miniature "roller coaster" and an observation wheel. In 2013, another reconstruction of the park took place, after which a city fountain, modern benches and pedestrian paths appeared here. Mobile attractions provide the children's audience with active recreation.

The Dunaivtsi regional museum is located in a historical building on the central street of Dunaivtsi.

The museum was founded in 1986.

Its funds include 3,000 exhibits. The permanent exhibition of the local history museum highlights the history of the city of Dunaivtsi and the entire Dunaivtsi region.

The ethnomuseum "Magic Hut" in the village of Hrushka near Kamyanets-Podilskyi is a small skansen (open-air museum) that introduces visitors to the traditional Ukrainian culture of Southern Podillya.

The hundred-year-old house in Hrushka was purchased in 2022 by the artist Adriana Viter in order to organize an ethnographic museum exposition. The house was built using the traditional Podillya keeled method - from clay and wood. A team of craftsmen restored and whitewashed the house, painted it with Podillya ornaments.

The exhibition is devoted to the cultural heritage of the villages flooded as a result of the construction of the Dniester HPP. The rooms feature some traditional crafts inherent in Dniester culture: pottery, herbalism, painting.

Opposite the "Magic Hut" museum is the 700-year-old well "Living Water" above the source of healing water.

The exhibition hall of the art department of the Kamyanets-Podilskyi Historical Museum-Reserve is located in the modern city center, on the ground floor of a multi-storey building.

The institution acquaints visitors with the works of contemporary artists of Ukraine. The reserve implements exhibition projects here, holds personal and collective art exhibitions, organizes concerts, workshops, fairs of handicrafts and more.

The large complex of buildings of the barracks of the Kamyanets-Podilskyi fortress looks especially impressive from the opposite side of the Smotrych canyon - from the pedestrian bridge or from the Holy Intercession church in the arboretum.

They were designed to house a military garrison by the commandant of the Kamyanets fortress, Yan de Vitte, and were built at the end of the 18th century by the architect Stanislav Zavadskyi.

From the side of the river, the building looks like a fortress thanks to powerful retaining walls and loophole windows. Russian writer and poet Kostyantyn Batyushkov, Decembrist and hero of Borodino Volodymyr Rayevsky, scientist-lexicographer Volodymyr Dal, writer Mykhaylo Bulhakov served here.

In Soviet times, a tobacco factory was located in the barracks. Now the complex is in an abandoned state.

One of the sights of Makiv is the Sugar Factory, built under Alfred Zhurovsky in the 19th century. In addition to the production premises, the owner arranged all the necessary infrastructure, including houses for workers and the director of the factory, a bathhouse, stables, bridges.

During the Soviet period, the object changed its appearance many times, although it continued to perform its original functions. The equipment of that time was disposed of by the new owners of the plant in 2012. Some ancient industrial buildings have survived to our time.

At the moment, special attention is drawn to the entrance to the territory of the Makiv sugar factory, which has preserved the unusual decor of the Victorian era in the form of a gate with caryatids.

The spring "Hamarnia" is located on the right bank of the Ushytsia River. The mineral waters of the spring are rich in copper, iron and magnesium. Experts compare the quality of these waters with the properties of Naftusya.

For a long time, there is a legend about the spring of "Hamarnia", according to which a very wealthy family - a landowner with his sister - lived in this place many years ago. The girl possessed special knowledge and helped heal many people. Rumors about her gift and beauty spread throughout the surrounding lands. Contrary to the fact that many young people asked to marry her, the brother wanted to marry his sister himself, disregarding all the canons and the will of the girl herself. But this was not destined to happen. During the wedding, the house fell into the ground, and a healing spring appeared in its place.